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Other Joint Appointments

NSF-NASA CCI (Center for Chemical Evolution)

Research Focus

Research in our group is focused on the use of synthetic organic chemistry and methodology to

1. experimentally address questions concerning the origins of life with respect to the advent of functional monomers and the emergence of informational polymers.
2. fashion artificial informational polymers in order to expand the interface between synthetic nucleic acids and the natural biopolymers (proteins and RNA/DNA).
3. make available novel molecular tools that may provide new avenues for probing biological systems and for research in synthetic biology.

 

Education

Ph.D., Chemistry, The Ohio State University, 1992

Professional Experience

2005– Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research, Institute, La Jolla, California
2005–2009 Investigator, The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
1998–2005 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
1996–1997 Senior research associate with Professor Eschenmoser, The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
1994–1996 Postdoctoral Fellow, NASA Specialized Center for Research and Training (NSCORT) in Exobiology; Research Advisor – Prof. Gustaf Arrhenius, The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
1992–1994 Postdoctoral Fellow; Research Advisor – Prof. Albert Eschenmoser, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich

Awards & Professional Activities

1988–            Member, American Chemical Society
1995–            Member, International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life
1998–            Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2006-08         San Diego Science Educators Association – Inventors Showcase
2008­–            MySci@Scripps - annual open house for High School students and Mentor, TSRI summer internship program; Astrobiology panel at UCSD life sciences career expo.           
2009–            UCSD undergraduate work-study program.
2010–            Member, Scientific Organizing Committee, 2011 ISSOL.
2011              ISSOL Fellow

Selected References

Role of pKa of Nucleobases in the Origins of Chemical Evolution. Krishnamurthy, R. Acc. Chem. Res. 2012. DOI: 10.1021/ar200262x

Exploratory Experiments on the Chemistry of the "Glyoxylate Scenario": Formation of Ketosugars from Dihydroxyfumarate. Sagi, V.N.; Punna, V.; Hu, F.; Meher, G.; Krishnamurthy, R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 3577-3589.

Diastereoselective Self-Condensation of Dihydroxyfumaric Acid in Water: Potential Route to Sugars. Sagi, V.N.; Karri, P.; Hu, F., Krishnamurthy, R. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 8127-8130.

Mapping the Landscape of Potentially Primordial Informational Oligomers: (3’→2’)-D-Phosphoglyceric Acid Linked Acyclic Oligonucleotides Tagged with 2,4-Disubstituted 5-Aminopyrimidines as Recognition Elements. Hernández-Rodríguez M.; Xie, J.; Osornio, Y. M.; Krishnamurthy, R. Chemistry An Asian Journal, 2011, 6, 1251-1262

A search for Structural Alternatives of RNA. Krishnamurthy, R. J. Mex. Chem. Soc. 2009, 53, 23-33.

Chemical Etiology of Nucleic Acid Structure: The α-Threofuranosyl-(3’→2’) Oligonucleotide System. Schöning, K.-U.; Scholz, P.; Guntha, S.; Wu, X.; Krishnamurthy, R.; Eschenmoser, A. Science 2000, 290, 1347-1351.

Chemical Etiology of Nucleic Acid Structure: Comparing Pentopyranosyl-(2'→4') Oligonucleotides with RNA. Beier, M.; Reck, F.; Wagner, T.; Krishnamurthy, R.; Eschenmoser, A.  Science 1999, 283, 699-703.

Links

NSF-NASA CCI (Center for Chemical Innovation)

International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life and Astrobiology Society

Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology